452 BOTANICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



found 117 species, of which one third also occur in the third. Of these, 

 5 only are 0, 3 Q, and 109 l ; moreover, 97 Dicotyledons, 16 Mono- 

 cotyledons, and 4 Eerns, distributed through 34 families, of which the 

 following contain most species: Synantheracese (16), Graminacese (11), 

 Cruciferse (11), Caryophyllacea3 (8), Scrophulariacese (8), Ranunculaceae (5), 

 and Gentianacese (5). Of Cryptogamic plants, Lichens growing upon rocks 

 are common. Arranged according to geographic distribution, the fourtli 

 region contains : a. 45 Spanish plants, of which 30 species are at present 

 peculiar to the Sierra Nevada ; 13 species are also endemic to the Pyrenees. 

 b. 66 alpine plants, part of which also occur in plains of the north of 

 Europe, c. 6 species, which the Sierra Nevada contains in common with 

 other mountains of the south of Europe. 



Wilkomm's botanical letters on his travels (vid. supra), 

 relate to the whole of Andalusia, and serve both to confirm 

 and complete Boissier's systematically developed descrip- 

 tion. 



The German traveller at once remarked, that the Sierra Nevada was much 

 more bare and poorer in shrubs than the other mountains of Spain. He 

 found, with Boissier, that the northern slope was richer in plants and more 

 humid than the Alpujarras. In the Serrania de Konda, he saw the forests 

 of Pinsapo, a tree which unites the growth of the pine with the bark and 

 arrangement of the branches of the red fir, but which differs greatly in the 

 thick and short leaves. At a remote period, a great portion of the Serrania 

 was covered with Pinsapo forests, but the trees have gradually been so cut 

 down, that the Pinsapo is only now seen as a tree on elevated spots ; it is, 

 however, found as a shrub from 3000' downwards. The Sierra Tejada, also 

 a dolomitic mountain between Granada and Yelez Malaga, was formerly 

 covered by forests of Taxus, from the Spanish name of which, Tajo, the 

 mountain derives its name. Now isolated trees only occur there at the 

 source of the Tagus (Fuente del Tejo). The low eastern prolongation of the 

 Sierra Tejada, the above-mentioned Sierra de las Almijarras is still partly 

 wooded, between Motril and Granada, with pine trees and oaks, consisting 

 of Pinus pinea, halepensis and Pinaster, Quercus Ilex and lusitanica. The 

 slope of this mountain-chain, towards the coast, is also the native place of 

 Catha Europcea, a shrub, which is found common between Nerja and Motril. 

 The mountains on the eastern portion of Granada appear to agree in their 

 vegetation most with the Sierra Nevada ; as does also the barren Sierra de 

 Alfacar (7000'), which separates the fertile Vega of Granada from the waste 

 and arid elevated plain around Guadix: Lavandula spica, with some'Cisti, there 

 forms the covering of the bare slope. The vegetation of the plains of 

 Guadix and Baza is that of a haloid and gypseous soil. On the boundary 

 near Murcia, we next meet with the high limestone mountain of Sagra, at 



